Film review: Horrible Bosses 2

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Published:19:00Wednesday 10 December 2014

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Released in 2011, Horrible Bosses centred on three friends, who plotted to kill their sadistic employers and found self-respect in the process.

Sean Anders’ raunchy sequel flings that self-respect out of the window and subjects the same unfortunate characters to a barrage of potty-mouthed humiliations that might be tolerable if we could muster an iota of sympathy for anyone in this redundant and joyless mess.

Undated Film Still Handout from Horrible Bosses 2. Pictured: Dale Arbus (CHARLIE DAY) and Dr Julia Harris (JENNIFER ANNISTON). See PA Feature FILM Aniston. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/Handout/Warner Bros/John P Johnson. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature FILM Aniston.

Alas, the lumbering script, scrawled by Anders and John Morris, has its mind in the gutter.

The luminous Jennifer Aniston spends the entire film spouting sexually explicit obscenities as an aggressive alpha female with an addiction to sins of the flesh. During the end credit out-takes, she refuses to deliver one line and smirks, “I can’t say that!”

Considering the filth that tumbles from her perfectly glossed lips, it’s hard to imagine anything that could provoke this polite resistance.

The plan spirals out of control and the trio crosses paths once again with cool cat associate Dean Jones (Jamie Foxx), jailbird David Harken (Kevin Spacey) and Dale’s old boss, sexual predator Dr Julia Harris (Aniston).

Horrible Bosses 2 doesn’t work on any level.

Bateman’s solid low-key performance contrasts starkly with the irritating double-act of Day and Sudeikis.

Like a pair of wasps trapped in a jam jar, they buzz endlessly as dim-witted dullards, who barely seem capable of drawing breath, let alone carrying out a kidnapping.